title: Odd-skipped maintains prohemocyte potency and blocks blood cell development in Drosophila.
abstract: Studies using Drosophila have contributed significantly to our understanding of regulatory mechanisms that control stem cell fate choice. The Drosophila blood cell progenitor or prohemocyte shares important characteristics with mammalian hematopoietic stem cells, including quiescence, niche dependence, and the capacity to form all three fly blood cell types. This report extends our understanding of prohemocyte fate choice by showing that the zinc-finger protein Odd-skipped promotes multipotency and blocks differentiation. Odd-skipped was expressed in prohemocytes and downregulated in terminally differentiated plasmatocytes. Furthermore, Odd-skipped maintained the prohemocyte population and blocked differentiation of plasmatocytes and lamellocytes but not crystal cells. A previous study showed that Odd-skipped expression is downregulated by Decapentaplegic signaling. This report provides a functional basis for this regulator/target pair by suggesting that Decapentaplegic signaling limits Odd-skipped expression to promote prohemocyte differentiation. Overall, these studies are the basis for a gene regulatory model of prohemocyte cell fate choice.
authors.affiliation: Center for Vascular and Inflammatory Diseases and Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
authors.forename: Hongjuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Xiaorong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fossett
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D029721:Drosophila Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D006412:Hematopoietic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C109258:ush protein, Drosophila; C066735:odd protein, Drosophila